When we planned our itinerary for Russia, the general feedback we got was that it was three days too many in Moscow. Our friends told us that Saint Petersburg was the one that we should focus more on, and that Russia’s political capital would appear lackadaisical and boring when compared to its cousin to the West. Yet despite the waves of well-meaning advice from our friends, we decided to make Moscow the first stop of our round-the-world trip. As lifelong history nerds, the opportunity to delve into the heart of the old Soviet Union was something that we found impossible to pass up.

Given our inability to distinguish Cyrillic alphabets from hieroglyphs, it made perfect sense to link ourselves up with a guide that could provide a proper introduction to this city. We chanced upon the ‘Total Moscow Tour’, a 7.5 hour walking tour by Moscow Urban Adventures that was an amalgamation of their 3 bestselling tours. It focused on the stories behind prominent local icons, the world-famous Moscow metro and Russian food. This was unlike other walking tours we signed up for in other major cities, which either focused on providing us with a general overview of the city, or only highlighted a singular aspect of the city’s history. To top it off, we recalled how our previous experience with Havana Urban Adventures in 2016 had led us to fall in love with the city, and we were excited to see what its Moscow counterpart had in store for us this time round.

Total Moscow Tour: Icons, Underground and Food

Icons

“Moscow is not just a city, it is a political statement. 

 Every time we get a new leader, we move and rebuild things.”

Ask anyone on the streets of Moscow who or what they regard as an icon, and you may hear mentions of Lenin, Bolshoi Theatre, and Kremlin. Malvina, our guide who has expertise in architecture and also happens to also be a highly competent photographer, introduced us instead to the first Macdonald’s that was opened in the Soviet Union (just off Pushkinkaya), an icon that symbolised the opening of the Soviet Union to foreign enterprises. It was hard not to be enthralled by the narrative of Macdonald’s rising popularity as an upper-class indulgence since its inception in the early 1990s, interspersed with Malvina’s childhood memories of Pushkinkaya as she introduced us Russian fast food in the form of a cherry-filled chebureki, a simple puff pastry that would rival our very own curry puffs in Singapore. We also did not expect the streets of Moscow to be iconic themselves, with many a living testimony of the communist party’s architectural ingenuity to increase the width of the city roads to accommodate its military parades. While tours on Moscow’s iconic monuments are aplenty, this one also brought us to seemingly nondescript buildings that we had passed by so many times on our walks around the city, and illuminated them with stories that showed how Moscow’s history was intertwined with that of the common man. 

Food

“We even pickled our leader!”

The tour’s focus on food was primarily anchored by our visit to the Danilovsky market – an indoor tapestry of authentic local produce despite its seemingly hipster, Instagram-worthy facade. We learnt how food in Russia was affected by its climate and religion. As a country that deals with long winters and lacked early access to modern amenities (i.e. refrigerators), and with a population that adhered to Orthodox Christianity (i.e. yearly fasting period during the Easter festivities, where Russians took in a strict alternate diet of raw and baked food), preserved foods such as pickled vegetables and dried mushrooms became a mainstay of Russian cuisine. With the context properly set, Malvina led us on a gastronomic journey of Russian delicacies. We started with an assortment of vegetables pickled with vinegar and salt, shuddered through differing varieties of pork lard, relished the kvass (a local drink made from fermented bread) and sweetened our palate with the zapekanka, their local version of the cheesecake made of baked cottage cheese and berries. What we remembered the most from this segment, however, was the story of how caviar and mandarin oranges were expensive food commodities associated with holidays, where ordinary working class folks would be willing to part with a considerable sum of money to bring some festive cheer to their families during the immediate post-USSR days. The dawning of yet another year was often celebrated with a spoonful of caviar spread evenly on a small piece of bread, or the ceremonious parting of a mandarin orange between a family of four. While this situation is no longer commonplace in a today’s Russia, it allowed for an emphatic peek into the lives of Russians just three decades ago.

Underground

“The Moscow metro: A palace for the simple people.”

For me, the highlight of the tour was uncovering the stories about the Moscow metro. With the growing pains of communist Russia characterised by rapid increases in population, less than optimal working and living conditions and terrible traffic jams, the government decided that metro stations were the only way the common people could come into contact with art. We were led to the Revolution Square station, filled with sculptures depicting ‘twenty years of Soviet people’ – the old and young, farmers and soldiers, with faces depicting actual Soviet citizens with good features, with specific parts of the sculptures touched by the commuters for good fortunes. We were also introduced to how the Kiev and Belorusskaya stations commemorated Russia’s friendship with Ukraine and Belarus, and had the opportunity to gaze at the ceiling portraits of Mayakovskaya, which depicted “twenty four hours in the land of the Soviets.” Malvina’s personal interest in the metro stations allowed us access to a treasure trove of stories, where she playfully singled out portraits that were altered as a result of historical whitewashing, and highlighted how the artwork represented also the utopian dreams of communist Russia.

While this was one behemoth of a tour, Malvina was able to masterfully engage us throughout the entire journey, which is no easy feat. Her infectious energy, stories and visual aids helpfully contextualised for us the sights, sounds and tastes of this city, and provided a valuable insight into the lives of Muscovites past and present. And for two travellers from Singapore who were encountering Moscow for the first time, she left us convinced that we had catered too little time for this fascinating city.

ETSY Explores were guests of Moscow Urban Adventures. However, all opinions remain ours and are completely unbiased.

This article first appeared in ETSY Explores.